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From its tall blue and red spires to the fortifications that surround this fictitious castle, there’s no missing Excalibur Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Owned by MGM Mirage, Excalibur takes its name from the mythical sword of King Arthur. The hotel’s façade is a stylized image of a castle, and, until 2007, a wizard-like figurine representing Merlin looked out from a high turret.

A Little History

Excalibur opened on June 19, 1990. It was originally built by Circus Circus company. At that time, it was the largest hotel in the world. In 2005, Excalibur (along with other hotels in the Mandalay Resort Group) was bought by MGM Mirage.

Location

Address: 3850 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas

A party pit with go-go dancers keeps players invigorated. Slots and live keno games are up and running 24 hours a day as well. The mid-day slot tournaments run from Thursday to Sunday at 2:00 p.m. The first place finisher wins $1000 cash. Excalibur’s dining options are known for the variety, value and service. Keno is without a doubt one of the longest running casino games, with stories stating that it dates back to over 3000 years ago, although the first verified account of the game keno was in 1847. However despite its age, keno is a game that has never really seen many variations of it.

Stern-wheeler SS Keno, Dawson City. The SS Keno, now resting on the riverbank of Dawson City, Canada, carried silver, lead and zinc ore on the Yukon River. Every Keno ticket MUST be PLAYED and winnings COLLECTED at the Red Rock Station Casino, Las Vegas Nevada. The numbers posted are not OFFICIAL until all 20 numbers are drawn and VERIFIED as correct. Any dispute will be decided by the numbers shown on the ACTUAL Keno balls drawn. Note: Multi-Race games of 10-1000 have ONE YEAR to collect and you.

Hotels/Resorts Located Nearby: Excalibur is located opposite the Tropicana. It is located between Luxor and New York New York Hotel & Casino. Mandalay Bay is located south of Luxor. Excalibur is connected by the free Mandalay Bay Tram to its sister properties, Mandalay Bay and Luxor. It is connected to New York New York and Tropicana by overhead pedestrian bridges.

Rooms and Suites

Excalibur has 4,008 rooms. Out of those, 2,000 rooms are newly remodeled and feature 42″ plasma screen televisions, alarm clocks with iPod inputs and custom pillow top mattresses made with Egyptian cotton.

General Prices

Excalibur is relatively affordable for all visitors to Las Vegas. Prices generally range between $50 and $100 per night, though there are frequent promotions, which drop the prices throughout the year. During peak season, the average prices at Excalibur can hover around $200 per night.

The Casino

The total gaming area is 100,000 square feet. It is loud, crowded and constantly moving with people making their way through the casino floor. This is a high energy resort, and the casino reflects that feeling.

There are a number of table games including blackjack, craps, roulette, poker, big six and mini-baccarat. A party pit with go-go dancers keeps players invigorated. Slots and live keno games are up and running 24 hours a day as well.

The mid-day slot tournaments run from Thursday to Sunday at 2:00 p.m. The first place finisher wins $1000 cash.

Restaurants

Excalibur’s dining options are known for the variety, value and service. In general, dining is a casual affair here. The Steakhouse at Camelot is probably the nicest restaurant on site. The resort’s buffet is a popular option with vacationing families while Dick’s Last Resort is a haven for anyone looking to laugh out loud with their meal. The Village Food Court offers several cafes and fast food options to choose from when you are on the run.

>>read more about the restaurants at Excalibur Hotel and Casino

Nightlife

People don’t visit Excalibur for its nightlife. In fact, it doesn’t have a nightclub nor are there any legendary lounges or bars in the resort. Octane and The Lounge have live music throughout the night, both of which are fun because they’re underrated and therefore not too crowded. Some of the restaurants are open late and Fun Dungeon is open until 1:00 a.m. on Friday and Saturday as well. In general, though, this isn’t the resort to hit up for the typical Las Vegas nightlife.

>>read more about the nightlife at Excalibur Hotel and Casino

Entertainment

Excalibur’s entertainment is appropriate for families but also fun and entertaining for other audiences as well. In addition to nightly live music, there are several shows that play daily at the resort. Comedy and a male strip show are the standing performances here, but most people come to Excalibur to enjoy the Tournament of Kings, a medieval variety and dinner show.

>>read more about the entertainment at Excalibur Hotel and Casino

Things to Do

Excalibur Hotel and Casino is known for its incredible variety of things to do. The Fun Dungeon, the resort’s midway, is in expansive area of arcade, video and carnival games as well as 4D rides and a laser maze. There are a few medieval novelty shops and clothing stores on the Castle Walk. The pool is free to both guests and non-gue

sts and consists of four pools, including an 18+ pool and one with water slides. There is also an on-site spa.

>>read more about the things to do at Excalibur Hotel and Casino
>>read more about the things to do for kids at Excalibur Hotel and Casino
>>read more about things to do in Las Vegas

Ideal Visitors

Due to its high energy, exciting atmosphere, Excalibur is a good choice for families with children or people who are kids at heart. It is also an ideal home base if you’re traveling to Las Vegas for a stress-free, fun time. Also, for those attending a convention at Mandalay Bay, booking a room at Excalibur is considerably less expensive and still easily accessible to all the convention’s events.

Travel Tips

• There are timeshare booths set up throughout Excalibur. You will likely be approached and asked if you’d like free show tickets for a couple hours of your time. Feel free to participate in the timeshare presentation (and, in fact, it is a great way to see shows for free), but do be aware of what these people are asking of you.
• The pool at Excalibur is free, so take advantage of it and the discounted rates on the cabanas.
• Excalibur’s parking garage is small though there is also plentiful parking in the lot. However, regardless of where you park, you’ll have a short walk to get to the casino.
• There is a Network Preview Center in the resort’s Castle Walk. Give them a few minutes to preview television shows or films and get paid for your time.
• Take advantage of the free tram, which runs from Mandalay Bay to Excalibur with a stop at Luxor.

Photo credits: msmail (feature), MGM (Italian meal), PaysImaginaire (pink drink)

Not sure if Excalibur Hotel and Casino is the right one for you? Check out other Las Vegas accommodations.

Introduction

The Excalibur is one of the two unimpressive MGM properties (the other one, oddly similar, being Circus Circus). It is located on the southwest corner of the intersection of the Strip and Tropicana. The casino is loosely based on a medieval/Arthurian theme. It appears to target budget gamblers, especially those who want to bring their children with them to Vegas. There is an area called the Fantasy Faire on the lower level, which offers lots of carnival favorites such as water-pistol horse racing.

Casino

According to the Nevada Gaming Control Board, the Excalibur has 81 table games and approximately 1,500 slot machines.

Blackjack

According to the Current Blackjack Newsletter, Excalibur has 9 tables of 6:5 'blackjack', 2 tables of Spanish Blackjack, and 22 tables of 3:2 blackjack. I also saw a table of 7:5 blackjack in the Party Pit. Minimum bets range from $5 to $25, depending on the table, time of day, and day of the week.

Roulette

Only American (double-zero) roulette is offered at Excalibur.

Craps

The Craps tables at Excalibur offer the strip-standard 3x-4x-5x odds, and full-pay hop bets of 15:1 and 30:1. The field bet, however, is the short-pay version with both the 2 and 12 paying double.

Other Table Games

The Excalibur offers lots of carnival games. Here are some of the games observed:

• Big Six
• Caribbean Stud Poker
• Casino War
• Let it Ride
• Pai Gow Poker
• Texas Hold'em Bonus
• Three Card Poker

Pai Gow Poker

Unlike every other casino I have played Pai Gow Poker at, the Excalibur does not let you 'surrender' your hand. For example, if your hand was an Ace-high 'Pai Gow', and the dealer split Two Pair, you know your hand lost. Most casinos will let you 'surrender' by placing your 5-card hand on top of your 2-card hand. It is actually in the casino's interest to allow this, since it can speed up the gameplay slightly. However, when I attempted to surrender a losing hand at the Excalibur, I was sharply scolded by the dealer that she must reveal my cards for the camera to see. Keep this in mind if you play Pai Gow Poker at Excalibur.

Most casinos offering Pai Gow Poker use an electronic device to determine who gets the first pack of cards. At the Excalibur, they use a dice shaker as is used in regular Pai Gow. When you bank, you get to shake the dice.

Video Poker

vpFREE2 confirms my own finding, which is that the video poker at Excalibur is very poor. The best game is 9/6 Double Double Bonus (98.98%), which can be found for nickels, dimes, quarters, half-dollars, and dollars. Some of the quarter machines have a progressive jackpot for a Royal Flush. There are also some 1-2-3-4-4-9-15-25-200-800 Deuces Wild machines (sometimes called Illinois Deuces or Airport Deuces, returning 98.91%) scattered around the snack bar.

Slot tickets at Excalibur expire after 1 month (approximately 30 days).

Sports Book

The sports book at Excalibur has 5 betting windows. There are 13 tables, 25 cubicles, and 68 lounge seats. There is one huge screen, 12 small widescreens, and 12 small square screens. Race and sports tickets expire after 120 days.

Poker

The poker 'room' at Excalibur has 12 non-smoking electronic PokerPro tables. It is not so much a poker room, but more of a fenced-in area in one section of the casino. My notes on the rake deducted from each pot were ambiguous, but I believe that the rake is the usual 10% up to $4, with an additional $1 deducted from pots of $20 or more, which I believe goes towards the licensing fee of the table itself from PokerTek, the supplier of PokerPro tables.

Update: The electronic tables have since been replaced with standard, human-dealt poker tables.

Keno

I picked up a keno booklet while eating at the Sherwood Forest Café. There are many types of keno offered. Here are the returns for the payouts that were in effect in June 2009:

For the Standard Keno, the following bet ranges are available:

• 1 to 9 numbers: $1, $3, $5, $10
• 10 to 15 numbers: $2, $5, $10, $20

As the number of spots chosen, number of matches, and bet size increase, the returns decrease due to capping the top prizes at $100,000. The worst-case scenario, betting $20 on a 15-spot ticket, loses an additional 0.5509% due to capping.

The 4-spot, 5-spot and 6-spot specials appear to only be available for bets of $3.50, $7, or $14.

The All or Nothing specials appear to only be available for bets of $5.

Red Hot Keno Specials appear to only be available for bets of $2.

Red Hot 'On The Go' Specials appear to only be available for bets of $2, and you must purchase at least 31 games.

Overall, the best bet (which is hardly a good bet) is the 3-spot Red Hot 'On The Go' bet, with a house edge of 19.8698%.

Player's Club / Cashier

The player's club is the MGM Mirage player's club. Both the player's club and the cashier have a single line that leads to several windows, ensuring that everyone is taken care of on a first-come first-served basis.

Towards the beginning of my 2-night stay at Excalibur, I spent more time playing Pai Gow at nearby Mandalay Bay than I spent playing at Excalibur. The day before I checked out, I asked an employee at the player's club if play at Mandalay Bay counted towards my comps at Excalibur. I was told that it did not. So I put in about 1 hour of play betting $25 on double-deck blackjack, and 2 hours of play betting $25 on Pai Gow Poker.

When I checked out in the morning, I asked the person collecting room keys about getting my stay comped. He barked at me that I had to go next door, inside an office with glass doors, to ask about that. I don't know if he was having a bad day or if too many people had already asked him that question. In any event, I went inside the office and asked the clerk the same question. She was very pleasant and comped my 2 nights without hesitation. The total cost of the room was $222.36 with tax. I have a hard time believing that my small amount of play at Excalibur warranted both nights being comped. Therefore, I think play at other MGM casinos does in fact count, as long as you put in some play at the casino you are staying at.

Hotel Room

My hotel room was located high up on the second floor, with a breathtaking view of the backside of the neighboring building, as well as the gravel and air conditioning units on the ground. I would rate the room itself as average; there are better places and there are worse. The bed area itself was rather large. The total size of the room was approximately 337 square feet (27.5' by 12.25'). I chose a room with a king-sized bed.

Check-in Coupons

When I checked in to my hotel room, I received a yellow sheet of paper with the following coupons:

• 2 each: One Free Drink or $5 Beverage Credit at the casino bars.
• 2 each: One Free Midway Game at Fantasy Faire
• 2 each: Free Fitness Center Admission. My opinion on this is that they felt the need to require a coupon for entry to the fitness room, so that people feel like they're getting something for free. I think it would make more sense to just require a room key to access the fitness room.

Pool

The pool at Excalibur has a secluded feel to it, thanks to the large rocks surrounding it. The rocks have water rushing down them, and the palm trees in front of them add a nice touch. It almost seems out of place, or too nice, for the casino that it belongs to.

Food

There are lots of medieval-themed places with quick eats at Excalibur:

• Roundtable Buffet: The prices are: Breakfast - $13.99 ($12.99 kids); Lunch - $15.99 ($13.99 kids); Dinner - $18.99 ($15.99 kids). Kids are defined as those who are 12 and under.
• Sherwood Forest Café: This is the only place I ate at during my stay, because it was the only thing open late at night. I had the garlic chicken for $19, which came with two sides. Some typical items include: Coffee/Soda/Iced Tea/Hot Chocolate - $3 (with free refills). 3-egg Omelette - $13. 12-oz New York Steak - $24. Fish and Chips - $15.
• The Steakhouse at Camelot - Features a 3-course meal for $29.95 per person, plus the usual steak dishes (NY Strip Steak, Prime Rib, others).
• Dick's Last Resort - The self-described 'Shame of the Strip'. A very strange place indeed, not for the light-hearted.
• Baja Fresh - Mexican fare.
• Regale Ristorante Italiano - Traditional Italian fare. This restaurant also offers a three-course meal, for $24.95 per person.
• Food Court - Features popular chains such as Starbucks, McDonald's, Quizno's, Pizza Hut, and others.

Overview

Excalibur seems like an ideal place for the budget-conscious family with young kids. If you don't particularly enjoy screaming kids, there are better places to spend your time and money.

There is a free tram provided by MGM that runs between the Excalibur, the Luxor, and Mandalay Bay.

Links

Acknowledgement

The Wizard would like to thank Nikkia Carter for her modeling services and J.B. for the review.

Contact Information

Address: 3850 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas, NV 89109
Phone: 877-750-5464
Web site: excalibur.com

Resort and Parking Fees

Games at Excalibur

Excalibur Keno

Excalibur Blue Keno

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